June meeting - Paper lamination

At our next meeting on Sunday 16 June, Leah will be running a workshop on paper lamination. This is a method of transferring images or text to a sheer fabric. She will also show how to use paper lamination to make stencils.

Here is an example in which Leah has used paper lamination to transfer images.

If you want to do the workshop you will need to bring -

Sheer fabric – polyester voile is a good place to start - it can take lots of scrubbing and is ideal for making paper lamination stencils. You can use any sheer (except nylon) - you can use white or coloured depending on what you're trying to achieve. 

Matte medium - both Liquitex and Golden Matte Medium are suitable. Leah will bring some, but if you've got some of your own you might want to bring it along. 

Papers and imagery - you can use sheets of newspaper or sheets of cheap printer paper to make simple stencils. However you'll also need to collect some images to transfer. Paper lamination is a very inexact process so think in terms of colour and texture rather than sharp images. Newspaper is the easiest paper to work with so collect interesting images or just work with sections of text. Collect plenty and tear them out rather than cut. You can also use laser printed / copied images if you want to work with one of your own photographs or with something you've found in a book / magazine. Glossy paper from magazines won't work. Nor will stuff printed onto photo paper. Most inkjet printers use ink which will bleed into the matte medium so are unsuitable. 

Other stuff - 

Print board with drop cloth 

Sheet of heavy plastic for scrubbing unused paper off (plastic coated table cloth will do) 

Ball headed pins to pin fabric down 

If you have one - Silk Screen + cheap 2 inch masking tape + squeegee.
Freezer paper + cutting board + craft knife to make masks for your silk screen (you could make something before the meeting but remember to think about negative space if you're going to make a stencil). 
Or thermofaxes if you have them.

Other ways of applying the matte medium - brushes, credit card, textured rollers etc. 

Couple of plastic pots / containers + plastic spoons 

Parchment paper 

Bucket

For examples of how paper lamination can be used have a look at

http://www.parallelstextiles.com/index.html

http://www.christinechester.com/gallery.html

Usual arrangements for lunch.

Disperse dyeing - report from Sunday's meeting

Sandra lead a wonderful day on disperse dyeing and printing and on acid dyeing. We started by looking at samples brought in by Julie and Glenda made using disperse dyes to paint papers. The effects ranged from crisp and precise to organic and textured. Sandra explained how disperse dyes work and we spent the morning happily painting papers. 

Here is the dye painting table.

And here are some more painted papers.

A quick trip to the car park produced some lovely leaves to print with! Here are some of the results.

The way that these dyes works is that the painted papers will be placed onto fabric and ironed to transfer the design. Come back next month to see more of the results.

After lunch we used the disperse dyes to dye polyester and silk. Sandra also showed how to use acid dyes to colour silk and nylon. Sandra brought in a microwave steamer and a microwave that she keeps just for dyeing ... she definitely doesn’t recommend using the ones that you normally cook your veggies in!

There were lots of happy exclamations as we started rinsing out our bright, beautifully coloured fabrics. So a successful day. Thanks again to Sandra!

May meeting - Dyeing with disperse and acid dyes

The next meeting is on Sunday 19 May, when Sandra will be demonstrating how to use disperse dyes to paint and dye polyester. She will also bring some acid dyes for working on silk and nylon. 

 

Please let Leah know if you will be coming so that Sandra can bring the right quantities of dyes.

 

If you want to have a go please bring the following -

• Polyester, silk or nylon (I can supply small pieces of polyester if you don’t have any)
• Brushes or sponges for painting on the dye
• Non metallic cook in bag suitable for the microwave plus extras to take your work home in.
• Plastic cups and spoons for mixing dyes
• Gloves / apron

These methods need a microwave to fix the dyes. Because this will limit the amount of fabric each of us can dye we will be dividing the group into two with one half dyeing whilst the other half work on their own projects.

The meeting will start at 10am at the Memorial Hall in Croft (small hall) and will have a shared lunch as normal. We will also have a show and tell of the dyed and discharged pieces from the last meeting and any projects you’re currently working on.

Printing session Sunday 21 April

Ten people came along for a meeting where we were printing with thickened Procion dyes and discharge paste.

Thanks go to Leah for preparing all the colours and paste we were using. We had a delicious selection of colours to choose from: two reds, blues and yellows, plus black, brown and petrol green. Here they are:

I hadn't had much time to think about what I was going to do, so just threw a load of stuff in the car. In the end I made a couple of small print blocks inspired by Hundertwasser's paintings (the subject of a recent workshop). I used these to print, first with discharge paste on black and green cotton and black velvet, and then with thickened dye on white cotton.

The discharge paste was great fun and easy to use. I have used household bleach before, but we used Formosol mixed with with print paste, which was much easier to control. You use it just like thickened dye and can apply it with stamps or by screen printing, including with thermofax screens. After applying it to your fabric, you just have to wait for it to dry and then iron to activate. The design appears like magic and gets paler the more you iron it. Finally, you have to wash the fabric to get rid of the print paste and stop any further bleaching.

Here are my fabrics, after washing and ironing, plus my print blocks.

If any members have a photo of their fabric from the printing session that they don't mind sharing, please send me a copy I'll post it on the blog.

Details of the next meeting will appear shortly.

Meeting dates for 2013

Meetings in 2013 will take place at Croft Memorial Hall, Mustard Lane, Croft, Warrington WA3 7BQ from 10am on the following dates.

Saturday 16th February – What to do with that hand dyed piece that’s too gorgeous to cut into ... inserting thin strips

Sunday 17th March – Using an Embellisher

Sunday 21st April – Hand dyeing or Working with thickened dyes

Sunday 19th May - Disperse dyeing and transfer printing on synthetic fabrics

Sunday 16th June - Paper Lamination

Sunday 21st July - Working with sheers

(No meeting in August)

Saturday 21st September - Hand dyeing or Working with thickened dyes

Sunday 20th October - Activity to be decided

Saturday 16th November - Activity to be decided

Sunday 15th December - Activity to be decided

 Composition workshop

Here are some of the images from our last workshop on composition. The images on the left were the result of been given a brief of producing a composition using any one shape and a line. The variety and interest of the compositions is amazing given the minimalistic brief.

The images on the right show two of the compositions produced with the brief of depicting summer using black and white and then later adding a splash of colour if desired.

Apologies to any group members if your work isn't shown, not all my pictures came out very well.

Thanks to Sandra and Karen for running the workshop.

Collage and Stitch workshop

Here is some of the work produced during the last workshop on collage and stitch held on 5th August. 

Working on a small scale allowed the ability to experiment with various fabrics, threads and design ideas in a short amount of time.

Many thanks to Julie for planning and running the workshop.